10-year-old boy dies from opioids

A 10-year-old boy is one of the youngest victims of the opioid crisis that is destroying Florida and other parts of the country.

The addictive drug took the life of fifth-grader Alton Banks on June 23.

Reports say the young boy returned home from a neighborhood hang out at his local pool and started vomiting. Family members later discovered him unresponsive and took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

According to a preliminary toxicology report, Banks had fentanyl in his system when he collapsed and died in his Florida home.

Health officials warn that fentanyl and other synthetic forms of the drug can be so strong that just inhaling or touching a small speck can be fatal.

Detectives are still trying to determine where exactly Banks was exposed to the fatal drug. There is no evidence the drug was at his home and it is suspected he may have been exposed to it on his walk home through Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, an area grappling with the opioid epidemic.

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